A Box of Chocolates From Nation’s Museums

Museums in the East and Midwest are giving visitors plenty of excuses to come in from the cold this month, and closer to home, San Diego is debuting an ambitious examination of evolution. Some major openings:

San Diego: The Museum of Man’s “Footsteps Through Time: Four Million Years of Human Evolution” occupies five galleries and 7,000 square feet of a newly renovated west wing. It includes more than 100 replicas of early humans, primates and futuristic cyborgs (part human, part machine). Visitors can touch and interact with most displays. Opened Saturday as a permanent exhibit. (619) 239-2001, ww.museumofman.org.

Chicago: Two very different shows here. One, called “here is new york: a democracy of photographs,” is the first showing outside New York of hundreds of photos relating to the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center. Through March 30 at the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs, 72 E. Randolph St., (312) 744-6630, www.hereisnewyork.org.

“Chocolate” arrives just in time for Valentine’s Day, unwrapping the sweet truth about the confection from its role in ancient Mayan and Aztec cultures to contemporary advertising and processing. Thursday through Dec. 31 at the Field Museum, (312) 922-9410, www.fieldmuseum.org.

Houston: This city’s Museum of Fine Arts is the first stop on a touring exhibit of the 1796 “Landsdowne” portrait of George Washington by Gilbert Stuart. The iconic painting, which hung for years at the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., was rescued from auction last year by a $30-million gift from a Las Vegas foundation. Friday through June 16. (713) 639-7300, mfah.org.

Baltimore: The Museum of Art displays more than 100 works by J.M.W. Turner (1775-1851) in what it says is the first major U.S. exhibition of the English painter in a decade. Feb. 17 through May 26. (410) 396-7100, www.artbma.org.

Stamford, Conn.: Here’s one just for fun: “Ukulele Fever: The Craze That Swept America.” Billed as the first museum exhibit on the topic, it includes more than 100 of the instruments whose popularity on the mainland peaked in the ‘50s. Through May 26 at the Stamford Museum & Nature Center. (203) 322-1646, www.stamfordmuseum.org.